![]() ![]() He asks Benjamin Franklin if he has heard any news from New Jersey since his son resides there but since said son is the Royal Governor of New Jersey and therefore a Loyalist to King George, the elder Franklin is not currently speaking to the younger one. Of particular note: The entire delegation of New Jersey has been gone for quite some time, and Hancock is concerned by this. ![]() Eventually the Congress is assembled, with John Hancock calling the Congress to order. Hall meets most of the important players in the Congress: Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, Caesar Rodney of Delaware, and many others. In turn, the delegates begin to arrive to begin a new day's session in Congress. Lyman Hall of Georgia, a newly appointed delegate, appears, and is promptly met by Andrew MacNair, the Congressional custodian. He will ask the Virginia House of Burgesses to authorize him to offer a pro-independence resolution. The cocky Lee crows that he cannot fail, as a member of the oldest and most glorious family in America: "The Lees of Old Virginia". Richard Henry Lee of Virginia enters, having been earlier invited by Franklin. Adams refuses at first, but then asks if Franklin had someone specific in mind. ![]() Later that day, Adams meets delegate Benjamin Franklin, who suggests that a resolution for independence would have more success if proposed by someone else. He reads the latest missive to his loving wife Abigail, who appears in his imagination ("Till Then"). Adams replies that Congress has done nothing for the last year but dawdle ("Piddle, Twiddle, and Resolve"). The other delegates, preoccupied by the rising heat, implore him to "Sit Down, John". John Adams, the widely disliked delegate from Massachusetts, is frustrated because Congress will not even debate his proposals on independence. On May 8, 1776, in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress proceeds with its business. NOTE: The show can be performed in one or two acts. the show opened on Broadway at the 46th Street Theatre on March 16, 1969. After tryouts in New Haven, Conn., and Washington, D.C. Stone confined nearly all of the action to Independence Hall and the debate among the delegates, featuring only two female characters, Abigail Adams and Martha Jefferson, in the entire musical. Īdams, the outspoken delegate from Massachusetts, was chosen as the central character, and his quest to persuade all 13 colonies to vote for independence became the central conflict. It had this very affectionate familiarity it wasn't reverential. You knew immediately that John Adams and the others were not going to be treated as gods or cardboard characters, chopping down cherry trees and flying kites with strings and keys on them. The minute you heard, you knew what the whole show was. But they understood commitment, and though they fought, they fought affirmatively." Producer Stuart Ostrow recommended that librettist Peter Stone collaborate with Edwards on the book of the musical. They disagreed and fought with each other. These men were the cream of their colonies. Edwards recounted that "I wanted to show at their outermost limits. Sherman Edwards, a writer of pop songs with several top 10 hits in the late 1950s and early '60s, spent several years developing lyrics and libretto for a musical based on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1950, a musical about the Revolution was presented on Broadway, titled Arms and the Girl, with music by Morton Gould, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and book by Herbert Fields, Dorothy Fields and Rouben Mamoulian, the show's director. In 1925, Rodgers and Hart wrote a musical about the American Revolution called Dearest Enemy. ![]()
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